


Eventually wakes the dreamer

by grassangel



Category: xxxHoLic
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Canon, Community: 31_days, Constructed Reality, Dreams vs. Reality, Gen, Other, Philosophy, Series Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-03-06
Updated: 2009-03-06
Packaged: 2018-01-09 15:34:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1147683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grassangel/pseuds/grassangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Watanuki wakes from a dream and there is a disquieting feeling, as if he were expecting something else aside from the usual, as if he wasn't supposed to live in this house and grant wishes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eventually wakes the dreamer

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 31_days prompt: 6. one night I dreamt I was a butterfly
> 
> Every bad meta-horror ends like this, and I thusly apologise. Somewhat.  
> Spoilers for volume 15 of xxxHOLiC and circumstantial spoilers for recent chapters (22 onwards) of xxxHOLiC Rei.

_They are under the cherry tree again, the scent of the blossoms floating down; tea and snacks arranged prettily on their tray. Yuuko sitting in front of him, wearing those same clothes and smile as before. She is telling him something, something important and he is refusing the information she is giving him, shaking his head in the negative. Her hand forces Watanuki to look up at her, to recognise that look in her eyes. Their gazes meet, Watanuki suddenly understanding and makes to grab her–_

_but a sudden storm of petals surrounds them and Yuuko is obscured from view, words still upon her lips as he tries to catch a hold of her hand._

_He shouts, and–_

Watanuki startles awake from his dream again, arm stretched out and reaching for something that is not there. He half-expects a butterfly to be perched upon his fingers, fluttering gently as he grasps for another set of fingers.  
Nothing is there though, as he lowers his arm and inspects his fingers, still believing there should be something.

He is still considering his fingers, wondering whether the thought of a butterfly resting upon was a dream or not, when he notices the room around him. The hangings of his bed surprise Watanuki momentarily, as if he were not anticipating them to be there. The movement to push them aside comes automatically though and there is a similar feeling as he steps from the bed; that he is expecting something else aside from the usual.

There is nothing around to provoke such an emotion and Watanuki double checks for spirits or magic before shaking his head, continuing with his routine, cataloguing the dream away.

 

Several more moments of awkwardness occur that morning: he overestimates his pace a couple of times, stubbed toes forcing him to adjust accordingly and a thought flashes across his mind as he is dressing that his clothes are too large, but they fit perfectly as he arranges the material over his shoulders.  
Watanuki also finds himself pausing in front of one of the bedrooms, mouth half-open as if ready to rouse someone. But he then closes his mouth and shakes his head, reminded that they hadn’t stayed the night before, that they wouldn’t sleep in this room if they had.

He slips up again during breakfast, setting three places instead of one and he clangs the teapot down onto its rest angrily in a vain effort to remind himself he doesn’t have company.

The awkward feeling dies away after he finishes and tidies away the dishes, moving to do his usual chores but Watanuki still can’t shake that he should be somewhere else, doing different things. His day progresses as usual though, even if he does feel surprised he’s greeting the visitors rather than making tea for them.

There’s a brief period of relief as Himawari and Doumeki visit on their way to something else and though they are busy, they find enough time for him to pour three cups of tea and to offer him a hand on the shoulder and a smile of reassurance. The two end up apologising that they can’t stay and Himawari offers him another smile before leaving.

“I’m sure, whatever it is, you’ll figure it out Watanuki,” she says, before turning back down that path.

Her and Doumeki’s visit is the only point during the day he doesn’t feel that reality has disturbed itself and it is only later, as he is about to turn over and fall asleep, that Watanuki remembers what Yuuko said to him in his dream.  
The rest of the night is spent in a restless sleep and he dreams in fragments: of dreams within dreams, of a boy dreaming to be a magician and its inverse – a magician dreaming he is a boy.

 

When Watanuki wakes the following morning, there is a certain dubiousness to the world, a hazy dream-like quality that makes him smile.  
Even if he cannot be certain if he is the dreamer or the dream, the Magician of the Dimensions still has his place in the world.

 

_The dreamer must wake for the dream to end. But when the dreamer wakes, how is he to know if he is the dreamer or the dream?_

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously inspired by Zuangzhi's Butterfly Dream, and uploaded here for posterity concerning Rei's recent (chapter 24) echo of xxxHOLiC's volume 15.


End file.
